Full-Day Pre-K, Longer Schools Days Eyed by Cuomo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday proposed competitive grants to entice school districts across New York state to adopt policies such as full-day prekindergarten for low-income students, longer school days and years, and new technology programs.

During his state of the state address, the governor didn’t say how much money he would make available for the programs — or how the districts would continue funding the programs after the grants run out.

Cuomo also said that districts would once again be required to have new teacher evaluations in place in the 2014-15 school year in order to receive any increase in state funding. This year, New York City and a handful of other districts are at risk of losing up to 4% of their state aid because they haven’t hammered out a deal on those evaluations yet, and the deadline is Jan. 17.

Cuomo has used competitive grants in each of his last two budgets to try to reward good performance or efficiency in schools — about $250 million out of $20 billion sent to local districts this year. Some school officials and members of the Board of Regents have said the money shouldn’t be held back in a segregated pot when all school districts were feeling the pinch of a 2% property tax cap.

“We don’t want to make schools compete for general school aid or reduce basic operating aid,” one tweet said.

On Wednesday, the governor laid out a much more detailed round of grants, with relatively popular ideas such as funding to add 25% more teaching time to school days or years. Districts could also apply for grants to add full-day prekindergarten — or at least five hours a day — for the highest-need students.

Cuomo also proposed tougher standards for new teachers, including more rigorous student-teaching requirements and higher admissions requirements for teaching programs at the State University of New York and City University of New York, which aides said would come in the form of GPA requirements. The state also is in the process of creating a new test for incoming teachers, which has been likened to a bar exam for law students.

The governor also said he would like to pay the best teachers additional stipends to act as mentors and instructors to other teachers by expanding a program called Math for America throughout the state. The program would provide $15,000 a year for four years to so-called “master teachers.”

The education proposals avoided more controversial topics, such as the distribution of state aid to districts based on need and anything related to charter schools.

Cuomo also said he supported paying teachers for good performance, but his description stopped short of what most people think of as “merit pay”: increased pay or bonuses based solely on whether teachers are effective. Instead, Cuomo said he supported paying effective teachers to help mentor and train other teachers or paying them more for doing more.

The proposals were widely praised. Both the leadership of the city Department of Education and of its frequent union adversary, the United Federation of Teachers, found things they liked. The union especially supported a proposal to centralize services in individual schools, while the city highlighted extended learning and early childhood education programs.